KINGS TAKE THEIR STAR POWER TO DALLAS 5-2

Goals came from Dustin Brown, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Wayne Simmonds and Dallas’ defender, Philip Larsen on a beautiful redirect with his skate on a nice pass by offensive juggernaut Willie Mitchell. The goal actually went to Mitchell. Williams finished off the scoring with his fourth of the season in an empty net.

Brownie’s goal would have made our President of Business Operations proud. Jack’s blast from the right side beat Lehtonen clean, rang off the cross-bar, the puck landed on Dustin’s stick and, boom, nothing but net.

Poni’s goal started on a Jack Johnson pass to Simmonds who, from the left side, cut past Benn and flicked a shot on goal that Lehtonen could not control. The rebound landed on Poni’s stick. 2-1. Nine seconds later (on the ensuing faceoff), Jack Johnson made a tape to tape pass from one blueline to the other on Wayne Simmonds’ stick. The greatness of the pass was that it hit Simmonds in stride. Wayne drove to the net and put it in before the net came off the mooring. That last fact was obvious to everyone except the on-ice official who waived off the goal on the ice until Toronto showed him the error of his ways.

Some thoughts & tidbits:

This team is built for the playoffs. This Kings team eliminates The Canucks last season.

Tonight’s version of Kyle is why I love Clifford. He doesn’t hesitate to start punching and doesn’t stop after the first one. Reminds me of an expression I learned from a good fighter as a youngster, “never hit a person once, it only pisses them off.” Kyle also had his best game of the season. Physical, mean, was relevant and on the puck each shift he was out there.

That fourth line of Clifford-Schenn-Westgarth is evil. I love it though Kevin needs to use his head more.

Wayne Simmonds left the game on a lower body injury. My guess was bruised rib but I am pretty sure that would be upper body. He took a shot to the ribs from Matt Niskanen while twisting away from a hit. Let’s hope it’s not serious. He tried to play a shift in the third but left the game in pain.

Poni throwing his body around is a sight to see but imagine if he had a mean streak and followed through on his checks…he would hurt people.

The announced crowd was 125 at the American Airlines Arena. That included Bob and Jim.

As someone tweeted, Brandon Segal’s goal didn’t help the Stars win, but it was a victory for half jews everywhere.

Quick was huge tonight. One of his saves which we will discuss in the Goalie Tracker page was his best this season and all highlight reel.

Jack Johnson is turning from a boy into a man before our eyes. He keeps this up and we may have to replace “a” with “the”. Three assists on the Kings’ first three goals. He was the catalyst to each. Jack played a solid game on both ends of the ice. He is every bit as good right now as I have seen Doughty ever be. I know he has those slightly “off games” but they are becoming fewer and further between. We are seeing this young defenseman make huge strides toward his potential as an all-star in this league.

10 replies

That was a tremendous game for the Kings. They started off kind of slowly, and midway through the second I was wondering if the game with the Hawks had taken too much out of them to keep up with the Stars, but then Johnson kicked in, and the Kings just took over. This was a tremendous end to the road trip, and 2 desperately needed points.

Learn to think outside of the box Texas boy. The Kings will have 2 number 1 defenders. Also, where is your full report from the game? You were one of the 125 people in the crowd right? Were you by chance a big guy wearing a crown?

So, guys, how many orgasms are we gonna sport before the sun comes up? Mmm, yeah, let’s give our girls all we got!

Besides, I love the smell of being an armchair GM in the morning, draped loosely in an old bathrobe, with bacon grease on my chin and countless sips of mimosa trickling down my throat, even when it’s raining cats n dogs. Ahhh, Friday.

Just getting to emails. Hope you give a Simmer update in a later blog. JJ..another Excellent game. Nice! Do hope he is “team” and not “it’s just about me” player. Cifford was standup. Continues like that..he stays. Even saw possibility in Westgarth :)
GO KINGS GO!!!